What are we drinking this week? Clos St André from Jérémie Mourat

Jérémie Mourat’s vineyards are planted close to the coast about and hour and a half south west from us here in Anjou in the region of Fiéfs Vendeen Mareuil AOC/AOP. Never heard of this AOC before? I’m not surprised. It’s a bit off the radar but you should put it in your GPS and head off to taste in his fabulous tasting room.

Absolutely one of our favourite white wines from the Loire valley and quite unlike any other. Clos St André comes from a small parcel formerly belonging to the Taittinger family and long time abandoned. Jeremie Mourat took the parcel over in 2007 and planted Chenin Blanc vines on this unusual terroir of purple schist and rhyolites.

We’ve always loved this wine and is absolutely disproves the theory that young vines are not capable of making complex, interesting wines. We loved it from the first vintage we tasted several years ago and love the current vintage 2012.

Grapes for this wine are hand harvested and go into the pneumatic press before a period of cold settling. Fermentation takes place in concrete eggs and wooden casks (3500L) using natural indigenous yeast. Malo lactic fermentation is not sought in order to retain precision and freshness. It spends 12 months on its lees before bottling.

Quite delicious and a little Burgundian in style with a beautiful citric freshness. An absolutely gorgeous wine that you should seek out.